Difference between revisions of "Treatise of Practical Surveying"

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A Treatise of Practical Surveying: Which is Demonstrated From its First Principles Wherein Every Thing That is Useful and Curious in that Art, is Fully Considered and Explained

by Robert Gibson

A Treatise of Practical Surveying
Title page from A Treatise of Practical Surveying, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.
Author	Robert Gibson
Editor	{{{editor}}}
Translator	{{{trans}}}
Published	Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Crukshank ...
Date	1789
Edition	Fifth
Language	English
Volumes	{{{set}}} volume set
Pages	viii, 272, [1], 90 pages, [12] pages of folded plates
Desc.	8vo. (21 cm.)
Location	[[Shelf {{{shelf}}}]]
	[[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

In the late eighteenth century the rapid progression of development into areas of the United States that were previously unsettled created a heightened need for accurate and consistent techniques to measure property rights and settle disputes that may arise out of infringement of those rights. A Treatise of Practical Surveying: Which is Demonstrated from its First Principles; Wherein Every Thing That is Useful and Curious in that Art, is Fully Considered and Explained… was authored by Robert Gibson to standardize the process by providing surveyors with a definitive guide to surveying property. Gibson’s work contains extensive coverage of the geometric principles involved in surveying property as well as details on the different surveying methods that may be employed by a surveyor.^[1]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as Gibson’s surveying. 8vo. This was one of the titles kept by Thomas Jefferson and later sold to the Library of Congress in 1815. George Wythe's Library^[2] on LibraryThing indicates "Precise edition unknown." The Brown Bibliography^[3] lists the 1790 (5th) edition, based on Millicent Sowerby's entry in Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson.^[4] Jefferson's copy no longer exists to conclusively verify the edition, however, the Wolf Law Library did choose to purchase the edition suggested by Sowerby.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in contemporary calf with leather spine label. Purchased from Bartleby's Books.

Find this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

References

1. ↑ Robert Gibson, and James Poupard. A Treatise of Practical Surveying Which is Demonstrated from Its First Principles. Wherein Every Thing that is Useful and Curious in that Art, is Fully Considered and Explained. Particularly Three New and Very Concise Methods for Determining the Areas of. The 5th ed. (Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph Crukshank, in Market-Street, between Second and Third-Streets., 1790.)
2. ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on November 11, 2013, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe.
3. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
4. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 4:22 [no.3707].